Breathtaking Abyss Table By Christopher Duffy

The Abyss Table is a limited-edition masterpiece that was created by Christopher Duffy for Duffy London. If you are familiar with other works signed by Duffy London, then you might expect this particular coffee table to represent some sort of play on levitation, and even though the company’s previous designs materialized into floating or strangely balanced furniture pieces, the Abyss Table was actually envisioned with depth and profoundness in mind.

Picture this: you wake up, you get a cup of your favorite coffee, you take a sip and you place the cup on this table. Without being able to help yourself, you admire the beautiful blue shades of the Abyss Table and you suddenly realize how deep the oceans are, how big the world is and how humbled you should be for being a part of it.

This outstanding furniture piece required 1 year to be designed and developed, and it is being manufactured as part of a limited edition of 25 units, all of which can be ordered in London. The materials that are used in the manufacturing process include high quality wood sourced from forests that are under the supervision of the Forest Stewardship Council, but glass was also used extensively in order to create the remarkable “abyss” effect. The table measures 5.2 feet in length, 2.6 feet in width and 1.5 feet in height, and it would definitely be a remarkable addition to any modern living room.

Duffy London made its name by fashioning remarkable designs out of thin air: the uplifting Up Table, that floats on a host of balloons; the Flying Carpet table, that hovers mysteriously above ground; the convivial Swing Table, circled by bobbing suspended chairs; the Shadow Chair, perfectly poised on two legs. This autumn, Duffy casts an eye downwards – looking to the depths of the ocean to dream up a dramatic new coffee table, that introduces the majesty of the big blue to the interior… As well as servicing you with somewhere impressive to put your cup of tea.

Like all of Duffy’s designs, the Abyss Table is a conversation piece as much as a functional one. But while previous works play with gravity, this new design is concerned with depth, and creates a geological cross-section as mesmerising as the sea. Designer Christopher Duffy explains:

‘I was looking into sheets of thick glass at my glass manufacturer’s factory, and noticed how the material darkened as they added more layers – the same way the sea does as it deepens. I wanted to use this effect to replicate a real piece of the earth’s sea bed. Like a mythical power had lifted a perfect rectangle straight from the earth’s crust to use as his personal ornament.’

The design team spent a year developing the table in their London studio, experimenting with sculpted glass, Perspex and wood, arranged like a 3-D representation of a geological map, until they re-created something of the mesmeric abyss that had first captured Duffy’s imagination.

The Abyss Table is hand made to order in London from sustainable materials, and limited to an edition of 25.